Discarded tyres and conveyor belts from the automotive, mining and aviation industries represent a significant and growing environmental problem, due to difficulties with disposal, environmental breakdown and/or incineration.
Retaining walls formed from tyres are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,255 discloses an impact absorbing barrier for highways, formed from whole tyres and half tyres, and in-filled with sand material. FR 2,682,700 discloses the use of tyres in a retaining wall where one side wall of the tyre has been removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,088 discloses a retaining wall formed from a plurality of segmented automobile tyres. Side wall segments disposed horizontally form a front row of the wall, and tread segments of the tyres are connected to the side wall segments and extend rearwardly thereform to provide additional support to the front row. However, the method of forming the front row is both complex and time consuming, requiring excessing tyre cutting, the use of rods 17, additional rods 24 and a relatively complex assembly procedure. Furthermore, the tread segments 20 are provided solely to support the front wall and there is no disclosure of the segments providing any reinforcing stability to any fill material that might be arranged behind the front wall.
It would be advantageous if at least preferred embodiments of the present invention provided a retaining wall and a method for forming the same that improves upon, or at least provides a useful alternative to, the retaining walls formed from tyres that exist in the prior art.